Dutch cricketer forced to work as food delivery guy amid COVID-19 pandemic

Gulf Today Report

In the wake of the spread of coronavirus pandemic, countries across the world have been reeling under the crisis. The global sporting community not only faces a financial challenge ahead but also an existential one.

The livelihood of each individual has been affected to a certain extent and athletes are no different.

Cricket is also one such sport which has not stayed unaffected as it had to halt following the outbreak of novel coronavirus in March.

While financially strong cricket playing countries like England, India, Australia have started cricketing activities and are making their way towards the new normal, associate nations such as the Netherlands, Afghanistan, Namibia, Nepal and others are still trying to come out of the pandemic in order to organise tournaments and look after their cricketers.

A recent tweet by Netherlands cricketer Paul van Meekeren has given an insight on how the players of the second-tier cricket nations are going about their lives amid the pandemic which has claimed more than a billion lives so far across the world.

The 27-year-old bowler, who last played against Zimbabwe in June 2019, revealed that he is working as a food delivery guy to make his ends meet during the lockdown.

ESPNcricinfo, in a tweet, mentioned that the 2020 T20 World Cup would have ended on Sunday at the MCG in Australia if the situation were normal and there was no outbreak of novel coronavirus.

Retweeting the post, Meekeren expressed his sadness at not playing the tournament and revealed that he has to instead deliver food to get through the winters.

"Should've been playing cricket today. Now I'm delivering Uber eats to get through the winter months!! Funny how things change hahaha keep smiling people (sic)," said Meekeren.

Over 4 lakh Covid-19 cases have been reported in the Netherlands with more than 8,000 people losing their lives to the deadly disease. The country last went into a four-week partial lockdown from October 14.

Meekeren has so far played five ODIs and 41 T20Is for the Netherlands in which he has picked up four and 47 wickets respectively.